Honda Shrine

Four deities are enshrined in this shrine: Honda Tadatoshi, Honda Tadatsugu, Honda Yasutoshi, and Honda Toshitsugu, who are revered as restorers of the Honda Clan. Yasutoshi and Toshitsugu were appointed as feudal lords of the Zeze domain. This shrine was built in 1883 by voluntary contributors such as former feudal retainers. Its shrine crest is a pattern of Asarum caulescens Maxim [the birthwort family], the crest of the Honda Clan. The main hall employs the ikkensha-nagare-zukuri style, [which is characterized by the asymmetrical gable roof and two front columns approximately 1.8 meters apart]. The precinct is within a former site of the Kawaragahama Palace, a villa of the feudal lord of Zeze, back in the early Edo Period [around the 17th century]. In the corner of the premises, there is a garden and pond slightly reminiscent of the sight of olden days. In the precinct, there are two burial mounds and Nionomiya Shrine where 11 martyrs of the Zeze Domain who died for the Sonno Joi movement [the doctrine of restoring the emperor and expelling the barbarians] at the end of the Edo Shogunate are enshrined.